It was chest pain that brought the 34-year-old woman to the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She'd been coughing for days, but that morning the pain was so bad she was worried that it had turned into pneumonia. She tried to tough it out, but when it was no better by the end of the day, she decided to go to the E.R.
It took a few hours, but finally the physician assistant caring for her in the E.R. brought some good news. She didn't have pneumonia; she didn't have a clot in her lungs. This was just muscle strain from coughing. The year before, she was told she had asthma.
She was given inhalers to stop the coughing and wheezing, but they didn't seem to do much. So she didn't use them.
The P.A. encouraged the woman to use her inhalers; they really would prevent the episodes of coughing and wheezing that had sent her to the E.R. so often that year. The woman nodded; she'd heard this speech before. The P.A. asked whether she'd like ibuprofen for the pain. Absolutely not, the patient said. After years of taking it for muscle pain after working out or racing, she had developed some kind of allergy to it. What about ketorolac? the P.A. offered. It's the same type of painkiller but a completely different compound.
Pain relief sounded appealing. But within seconds of getting the intravenous medication, the woman felt an intense pressure in her chest. Her windpipe narrowed as if she had something stuck in her throat. She tried to shout, "I can't breathe!" The only sound that came out was an unintelligible whisper.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/magazine/aspirin-exacerbated-respiratory-disease-aerd.html?
